Through the validation of the findings that the course and outcome of schizophrenia vary in different sociocultural settings, the proposed study will aim at: (i) identification of determinants, predictors and factors that may protect individuals suffering from the disorder from disability; (ii) development of a methodology for the cross-cultural study of family functioning, so that "normal" functioning in different cultures can be better defined and assessed, and factors, which may foster it in the situations of distress, identified and enhanced; (iii) testing of hypotheses linking the clinical and social prognosis of psychotic patients to cultural and biological characteristics of families, as well as to the specific impact a mentally ill individual has on his family in different cultures. The study will include a cross-sectional standardized evaluation and a two-year followup of a series of patients with psychotic illnesses of recent onset, of their families, and of matched control families in field research centres in several countries with contrasting cultural patterns. It can be expected to increase knowledge on factors which determine the natural history and sociocultural concomitants of schizophrenia and other functional psychoses; to produce methods for the assessment of healthy and disturbed family functioning which could also be used in other studies; to supply crosscultural information on norms of psychological functioning and behavior; to strengthen an international network of collaborating psychiatric research centres; to provide data utilizable by mental health planners and administrators in the designing of preventive, treatment and management programmes.